Can You Visit the USVI on Your BVI Yacht Charter?

Yes, in most cases you can. The version we book most often is a BVI charter that starts or ends with a night around St John in the US Virgin Islands, and for many groups it turns out to be the best day of the trip.

The honest caveats: everyone needs a passport, clearance takes a bite out of a day each way, and not every boat is allowed to cross. Here is how a combo week actually works, and what we check before you book.

What a BVI and USVI combo week looks like

Most of our guests fly into St Thomas because it has far more flights than the BVI. On a combo week you board there, have lunch on the way, and spend your first night on a mooring off St John before crossing to the BVI early the next morning.

St John is the prize. About 2 thirds of the island is Virgin Islands National Park, and in most park waters you pick up an NPS mooring buoy rather than dropping anchor, currently $26 per night. It is noticeably quieter than the busiest BVI anchorages.

A typical shape: night 1 off Honeymoon Beach or the north shore of St John, then across through West End or Jost Van Dyke, a full BVI loop, and a final USVI night before your flight home. You can also run it as a pure BVI week with a 1-night USVI detour on either end. For the day-by-day version, see our 7-day USVI to BVI itinerary from St Thomas.

If this is your first charter, the booking process is the same simple one we walk through in how the whole charter process works: one boat, one crew, one bill.

The honest mechanics: clearance, passports, and paperwork

Every crossing means clearing out of one territory and into the other. On the BVI side that happens at a port of entry such as West End, Road Town, Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke, or Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda. On the US side it is usually Cruz Bay on St John or Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas.

You stay on the boat. The captain goes ashore with everyone’s passports, and most details are filed in advance: the BVI now requires an online embarkation card up to 72 hours before arrival, and the US side uses CBP’s ROAM app. Budget part of a day for each crossing, not just the paperwork.

Fees are real but small against the charter price. The BVI cruising tax is currently $16 per person per day for boats based outside the BVI, against $6 for BVI-based boats, plus a $10 environmental levy per person on entry. These fees have changed several times recently, so we confirm the current rates for your dates before you book.

The bigger constraint is the boat itself. Boats based outside the BVI are limited to 7 BVI entries a year, and whether a boat can legally start its charter in the USVI depends on its flag and its crew’s visas. Our guide to BVI-based vs USVI-based yachts explains how the base changes what your week can look like. That is exactly what we check before we shortlist anything.

Non-US passport holders should talk to us early. Arriving in the USVI by yacht has different visa rules than flying in, and we confirm the current rules for your group before you book.

When a pure USVI charter is the better answer

If your group is all American and someone does not hold a valid passport, do not force a combo week. US citizens do not need a passport for the US Virgin Islands, so a USVI-only charter on a US-flagged boat with American crew means nobody gets left at the dock.

You are not settling. St Thomas, St John, and St Croix fill a week easily with protected bays, national park moorings, and fewer boats around you than the BVI in high season. Several crews we work with argue St John alone can carry the trip.

The money works like any crewed charter. See what a crewed charter costs and what is included for how the numbers break down.

How far ahead should you plan a combo week?

Earlier than a standard BVI week. The pool of boats licensed for both territories is smaller, and the 7-entry cap means the good ones ration their crossings across the season.

Tell us in your first email that you want USVI time. We then shortlist only boats that can legally do it, confirmed in writing, instead of discovering a problem after the deposit.

For winter holiday weeks, start as early as you can; those calendars close first. For a normal season week, 6 to 12 months out keeps the full shortlist open. Flights into St Thomas are the easy part, as our guide to getting to the BVI shows.

Tell us about your group

The right answer comes down to 3 things: whose passports are current, your dates, and how much of the week you want on each side.

Send us those and we will come back with boats that can legally do the trip you actually want, with the clearance plan already built into the itinerary, like the one in our round-trip itinerary from St Thomas. That is the whole job of a broker on a combo week: no surprises at the dock.

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